THE STUTTERING AUCTIONEER
"I DON’T STUTTER LIKE I USED TO; NOW, I STUTTER PROFESSIONALLY!" by Jake Ohlinger
I grew up on a farm in a small southwest Iowa town with a population of 300. My senior high school graduation class was eleven. In spite of my stutter, I was elected senior class and student body president.
I enjoyed sports but was not the best at them. So, I chose to officiate the sport of basketball in our community. As a high school sophomore, I believe I was the youngest licensed Iowa state high school basketball referee. I learned the laws of the game and knew how to blow the whistle to enforce the rules.
With eleven siblings growing-up on a farm in the 50’s & 60’s, we created a lot of our own entertainment. My brothers and sisters could not remember a time when I did not stutter. It was reported that I did not start to talk at an early age and I let others do the talking for me. I also had lots of (good intentional, non-professional) speech help from my parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, friends, and neighbors. Despite constant instruction, I still stuttered.
During my senior year of high school, a person from Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation stopped at our school and inquired if there was anyone in our area that could benefit from Vocal Rehabilitation Services. This was the start of my formal professional speech therapy. Right after graduation in the summer of 1964, I experienced my first real speech therapy session under the care of speech clinician Barbara Murray. For thirty minutes per week during that summer, I learned and grew in the direction of speech improvement. It was great.
I enrolled in the University of Iowa solely for speech therapy. Dr. Dean E. Williams was my chief speech therapist and my academic advisor there. In spite of being classified as a severe stutterer, I learned ways to improve
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